So about this Skype thing…

It’s Saturday night and I’ve been battling this nasty cold for a few days now. AH CHOOO

Oh man. Sorry about all that sneeze-snot on the inside of your computer monitor. I’ll get it cleaned up.

Anyways… so while ingesting some bowls of hot chicken soup, I started experimenting with the laptop computer I bought last year.

I use this laptop as my primary basketball stats computer – if I have to do anything with the National Basketball League of Canada, it’s all on this laptop.

I should mention that this laptop has a built-in video camera and a microphone. Of course, I’ve never used either of these components…

Until last Saturday.

I figured that if I had these components on my computer, I should be able to Skype with someone. Of course, I have to INSTALL the Skype software on the laptop, but that shouldn’t be a big deal.

Now all of you who are reading this blog at this very moment are probably screaming, “Chuck, listen to me. Skype has been around for a few YEARS now. What’s next, you finally going to discover Pinterest?”

Oh, go chase a car.

Anyway, I installed Skype and then decided I had to call someone. Or at least someone I knew who had Skype.

After a few tries, I was able to contact my daughter Cassaundra through Skype. Now think about this for a couple of seconds. Cassaundra was supposed to come visit this summer, but some things happened and she couldn’t travel for a while. And although we can chat on Facebook and we can chat on the phone, it’s not the same as talking face to face.

And last Saturday, we finally did. We were able to show each other our new living spaces – I showed her my apartment in the Town and Village, while she showed me the house she shares with her roommates. She also showed me her new dog Sam – Sam is a “therapy dog,” and Sam helps Cassaundra out when things get rough for her. And in case you’re wondering, Sam is a German Shepherd-Rottweiler mix. Nice choice to help protect my kid.

I happened to notice some decorations in the living room from her video feed – yep, she still has her three or four ventriloquist’s dummies on display in her place. Somewhere along the line, she got her mitts on an old plastic ventriloquist’s dummy, and she never let it go. She later acquired a couple more, and eventually my relatives bought Cassaundra some baby clothes and toddlers’ clothes that she could use to dress the dummies. Bet those dummies creep out her roommates. Ha ha ha.

“Hey Daddy,” she said. “Look what I still have.”

A quick dart out of camera view – and a quick dart INTO camera view. And there it was. She showed me the stuffed penguin I bought her 15 years ago at Jordan Marsh as a birthday gift. “I still have Barfy the penguin,” she beamed.

“Wow.” I was impressed. “Does it still work?”

“Not any more,” she said. “You can squeeze it but it doesn’t make the bird noises. So I took that part out and had Barfy sewn back up.”

Let me tell you something. That stuffed penguin outlasted the Jordan Marsh store in Crossgates, where I purchased it.

We talked for a while longer – she showed me her hand, the one that received nasty burn damage in that fire a month ago. “I’m doing okay,” she said. “There’s some nerve damage, but I’ll be all right.”

“Okay,” I replied. “So long as you’re doing better.”

“Yeah, I am, Daddy,” she said.

Okay, it’s official. We’re going to Skype some more in the future. Not just to save a few pennies on phone calls, heck I know that Skype-to-Skype calls are free – but just so that I can actually see her and make sure she’s okay, and that if something DOES happen to her in the future, I won’t feel like I’m 3,000 miles away from her.

3 Responses

I’m from the dinosaur age, and most computer things are beyond my scope, but I can Skype! I love it too! My children and grandsons are in Boston and Colorado, and we Skype a few times a week! It’s been wonderful to talk AND see them at the same time. And then this morning my brother, from SC Skyped, to wish me a Happy Birthday and to tell me that my great nephew was born–on my birthday! Skype has made a huge difference in my life, that’s for sure! You’re going to love it, more and more!!!

Of all the technology we have come to embrace,being able to Skype and Facetime is the best! Talking and watching my grandson play in real time and hearing his baby sister giggle as she watches his antics are priceless moments.